Persecution of Chen Guangcheng’s family "getting worse"

A year after the escape of the blind dissident, known for his battles against forced abortions and sterilizations in Shandong, the communist authorities continue to persecute his family with arrests and psychological pressures. Reggie Littlejohn: "They are trying to silence one of the most authoritative voices in the battle for human rights in China."

Beijing
(AsiaNews) - Chen Guangcheng flight into exile has unleashed a
wave of persecution against his family. A
year after the blind dissident's daring escape from house arrest, in fact, the
Beijing government continues to keep pressure on his family: his nephew Chen
Kegui is in prison, while the family home is subjected to constant "anonymous"
attacks
and provocations including dead animals in the garden and stones thrown at the
windows.

Known
for his battles against forced abortions and sterilizations in Shandong
Province, Chen Guangcheng has become an emblem of the struggle for human rights
in China. Blind
since birth, he spent four years in prison for denouncing abuses by the
authorities responsible for implementing the one-child law in the country.

After
escaping house arrest, on 22 April 2012, after a reckless trip to Beijing, Chen
sought refuge in the American Embassy. Following
threats of reprisals against his family, he agreed to leave the embassy and be
hospitalized and have his foot treated, injured during the escape. Joined
by his wife and his two sons, he learned of threats and asked to be able to at
least seek exile in the U.S..

The
solution was found by the Chinese government: Chen - declared a note from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - may apply to go abroad to study "like all
Chinese citizens." The
agreement reached between Washington and Beijing, says the same dissident, also
included an end to the persecution of family members still living in the
village of Dongshigu in Shandong. However, this clause
was not respected.

Chen
Guangfu, brother of the activist, said: " They have been harassing us ever since the night of the 18th [April].
'Unknown' people close to the
government have hanged dead chickens and ducks in our backyard, and have stuck defamatory
posters on our house with threats against us and against Chen .
Then on the night of April 21, they threw stones, smashing the windows. On
April 22, our mother went out to go to the market and saw leaflets on the
street against us. "

There
have also been other threats against his wife Ren Zongju and against some
grandchildren. One
of them, Chen Kegui, was sentenced to 39 months in prison for threatening - during
his uncle's escape - a Communist official: in fact the young man was defending
his home from an unidentified stranger.

In
the posters, the two brothers are called "traitors of the Han people. They
say that we have links with 'foreign devils' and the separatist forces in
Taiwan, that we are children of the United States and traitors to our country.
I think it is an organized campaign to intimidate
us not to talk about some details of this case. But it is affecting us on a
psychological and economic level. "

Reggie
Littlejohn, President of Women's rights Without Frontiers, stated, "We condemn
the persecution of the relatives of Chen Guangcheng by Chinese Communist
thugs. This harassment is clearly designed to silence him as one of the
leading voices in the world to expose the brutality of this regime. The
Chinese government will even stoop to detain without food or water a
10-year-old child in an attempt to silence her activist father, as in the case
of Zhang Anni, earlier this month. We urge Chinese President Xi Jinping
to stop the harassment of Chen Guangcheng's relatives in Dongshigu
Village. We call upon President Obama and Secretary Kerry to urgently
intervene on behalf of Chen Guangcheng's relatives in China."